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1 week ago | 
seenandheard-international.com | Rick Perdian
United States Gounod, Faust: Soloists, Band / Jacob Ashworth (conductor). Heartbeat Opera, Baruch Performing Arts Center, New York, 24.5.2025. (RP)Heartbeat Opera, as its name suggests, gets to the core of a story. For Gounod’s Faust, scenes were cut, dialogue adapted and the score reimagined. The result was a tightly focused tragedy culminating in a transcendent finale – the magical moment that all theatergoers crave. On Broadway, Audra McDonald currently provides this in Gypsy in ‘Rose’s Turn’.
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1 week ago | 
travelandmusic.medium.com | Rick Perdian
Attending an international music festival is more than a trip. It is an adventure packed with unforgettable experiences and great live music that stays with you long after. However, the experience can quickly turn into a nightmare if you are ill-prepared to face what may come next. The Fyre Festival held in the Bahamas in 2017 would be a great example when everything went down south from the beginning.
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1 week ago | 
seenandheard-international.com | Rick Perdian
United States Tchaikovsky, The Queen of Spades: Soloists, Metropolitan Opera Chorus and Orchestra / Keri-Lynn Wilson (conductor). Metropolitan Opera, New York, 23.5.2025. (RP)The late Elijah Moshinsky’s production of Tchaikovsky’s The Queen of Spades, which was first presented at the Metropolitan Opera in 1995, has returned for five performances to close the season.
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1 week ago | 
newyorkclassicalreview.com | Rick Perdian
With 15 performances of La Bohème down, and three Mimis—Ailyn Pérez, Eleonora Buratto, and Kristina Mkhitaryan—the Metropolitan Opera presented the fourth and last of the season, Corinne Winters, on Sunday afternoon. It was the soprano’s first appearances at the Met since her debut as the Countess Ceprano in Rigoletto in 2011. With her finely crafted, sensitively sung, captivating Mimi, she gave a star-making performance.
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2 weeks ago | 
seenandheard-international.com | Rick Perdian
United States Music Mondays – Fauré, Meyer, Schubert: Paul Appleby (tenor), Claremont Trio. Advent Lutheran Church, New York, 19.5.2025. (RP)Fauré – Piano Trio in D minor, Op.120Jessica Meyer – Shadow SongsSchubert – Piano Trio No.2 in E-flat major, D.929What does a star tenor of the Metropolitan Opera do on his night off? If it is tenor Paul Appleby, currently appearing as Caesar in John Adams’s Antony and Cleopatra at the Met, he sings the premiere of a new song cycle.
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3 weeks ago | 
newyorkclassicalreview.com | Rick Perdian
The Metropolitan Opera has struck gold twice this season with Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia. A star-studded cast of Met favorites, led by Isabel Leonard, Lawrence Brownlee, and Davide Luciano, launched the season’s revival of Bartlett Sher’s 2006 production last month. There was a new cast on Thursday evening, different in many ways, but equally winning. The icing on the cake was the Met debut of Jack Swanson as Count Almaviva.
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3 weeks ago | 
seenandheard-international.com | Rick Perdian
United States Verdi, Aida: Soloists, Metropolitan Opera Chorus and Orchestra / John Keenan (conductor). Metropolitan Opera, New York, 9.5.2025. (RP)‘It’s a long, long while from May to December’ goes Kurt Weill’s ‘September Song’, and the reverse is also true, give or take a month. The New Year’s Eve premiere of Michael Mayer’s production of Aida at the Metropolitan Opera went off the rails due to an ailing Piotr Beczała, who ill-advisedly attempted to sing the role of Radamès.
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3 weeks ago | 
seenandheard-international.com | Rick Perdian
United States Mozart, Beethoven – ‘Magnificently Mozart’: Andrew Schwartz (bassoon), Petra Somlai (fortepiano), American Classical Orchestra / Thomas Crawford (conductor). Alice Tully Hall, New York, 7.5.2025. (RP)Mozart – Symphony No.35 in D major, K.385 ‘Haffner’; Bassoon Concerto in B-flat major, K.191Beethoven – Piano Concerto No.4 in G major, Op.58Thomas Crawford led the American Classical Orchestra in ‘Magnificently Mozart’ for its season finale at Alice Tully Hall.
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1 month ago | 
seenandheard-international.com | Rick Perdian
United States R. Schumann, Saint-Saëns, Goldberg – ‘The Wadsworth Legacy’: Soloists. Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Alice Tully Hall, New York, 2.5.2025. (RP)On 11 September 1969, the strains of a Baroque trio sonata was the first music heard in Alice Tully Hall. It was also the first concert by the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, founded by Charles Wadsworth. On 2 May 2025, CMS celebrated ‘The Wadsworth Legacy’ with a concert that opened with the same music in the same hall.
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1 month ago | 
newyorkclassicalreview.com | Rick Perdian
Parlando concluded its season with the launch of “The Cabaret Project” at Merkin Hall on Thursday evening. Running less than an hour, the concert showcased works by composers outside the mainstream, featuring colorful orchestrations and an interesting backstory. It proved the kind of imaginative and historically grounded musical experience expected from Ian Niederhoffer, founder and conductor of Parlando. The story began in the late 1880s in Paris, where cabaret originated.
